Under other Circumstances
by Lichtherz
Summary: Just a little one-shot with Demyx and Axel. I had uploaded an earlier fanfiction with Kingdom Hearts, but I find I had to leave behind a better one ;3 And I love this pairing. (And yes, it got a liiiiiiiittle bit inspired by a Creepypasta story)


Good morning, good afternoon or whatever time you will read this.  
My native language is not English, so please excuse my poor grammar or use of words.

Pairing: Axel x Demyx

Rating: T

Genre: Adventure, and a bit of a spooky side

Disclaimer: Demyx and Axel belong to Square Disney Enix…(to Kingdom Hearts, by Square Enix and Disney)

_

Pling!  
A medium sized water drop woke the Flurry of Dancing flames up. He had been lying there for quite some time, motionlessly and unconscious. The redhead blinked and looked up. He was fatigue, still tired of his last big task to help the Keyblade wielder to reach his destination.  
This is for when you put all of yourself into one last attack. …Even when you don't have a 'yourself'.  
But no time to think was granted for the spiky redhead. There was a massive chunk of ice on the ceiling above, looking ready to crash onto him.

Whether he believed to be dead or not, he didn't want to find out that way. He hurried from beneath the chunk of ice and then took his sweet time to recover. He stumbled against some metallic handrail. The rail ran right next to large stairs that led down to a larger area, which revealed the view to…. An underwater city. The city and its water was blocked from crashing in by some thick glass as it seemed. Everything seemed wet. Terribly wet.  
This must be my personal nightmare, the redhead thought and shivered as he paled. He checked himself. Aside from being very tired, he still wore the black trademark coat of the Organisation 13.  
"At least I won't have to worry about getting' thirsty…", he muttered to himself and wiped the sweat or water from his brow.

Two questions… well, scratch that, the longer Axel was here, the more questions formed in his head. But one thing was for sure, he wanted out.  
"Wonder… if my fire still works.", he murmured to himself as he searched for an escape. Not that it would make much of a difference. Any fire down here, magical or unmagical would dissolve into thin air. The air itself was too wet to keep a fire alive for long. But maybe his chakrams would do to defend himself. Because the air was not only moist but also danger lingered in there.  
Once he had the two ring-shaped weapons in his hands, he felt much safer. Was he alone?

Observing his surrounding's further, Axel noticed that the technology was somewhat old… maybe from the 1940's or 1950's of the world as we know it, when Disney was about to get more and more famous. Also, some forms appeared familiar…

Then he stepped into something sticky and dark. The whole place was barely lit, but it became darker on further approach. Sometimes, the redhead thought of retreating. Maybe there was another way…  
He looked to the ground and dared to light a flame. …There was a pool of blood where he was standing.  
The pool had several trails, but in the middle of it was a corpse, no a costume… it was a deformed Mickey Mouse.

Regardless of his own position towards the mouse, this was simply sickening! Axel just wanted out of here. What kind of wicked hell was this where he had ended up?  
"How do I deserve…_this_!?", he hissed between gritted teeth, holding back his nausea. He told himself not to look too close, yet – has the arm not moved for an inch?  
There! An open door, where it was a bit illuminated! Oh, how he hungered for light. Was he now something like a heartless?  
Nobodies were meant not to feel anything, but the fear he felt upon having looked at this unearthly creature that slowly arose from the puddle of blood was a fear keeping a person alive. Yet, you could say that Axel had always been special.

Leaving the large swinging doors behind him, he ran towards the light. Axel could have thought of fighting that creature instead of running like some coward. But this was no opponent like he had ever seen or fought before.  
"And here I'm running like Demyx… run, run awa-AY!", he mocked shortly before he stumbled over an obstacle lying on the ground.

Axel slid over the floor, lost his chakrams – which wasn't much of a problem – and swung himself backwards to see what he had been falling over: A rotten Donald head with a human skull rolling out.  
"What kind of freak show is this here!?", he screamed. This wasn't funny anymore! Anyone would be scared over such an eerie place!

About half an hour later, Axel had fought further through the undersea maze. The city under sea seemed endless and have been made as an amusement park by a corporation called 'Disney' some ages ago… and now was abandoned for some unknown reason, left to wither away by itself. And here and there was even graffiti of some person saying 'abandoned by Disney', almost an accusation.

Then there was a bridge before him, halfway frozen, dripping wet. Another power than fire would have helped crossing that bridge now.  
This made the redhead think of the 12 other members of the Organisation. Some of them would have the right power to do the trick here. It was the first time since he thought of the other nobodies and their fate. Was he the only survivor? Because either as a nobody or somebody, he _did_ exist now, didn't he? At least as a matter of fact that he could feel the sweat underneath his coat, the moist of the air, the cold of the place here.  
He stepped quite close to the end of the bridge… the bottom of the gap the bridge might have crossed another time was invisible.

He huffed and could see the hot air leaving his nostrils. "It's no use thinkin' of the past…"  
His main goal was to come to the surface. Eventually from there would be a way out. Even if he had to build a raft to reach some 'normal place'. There had to be something out there and he would find it. Those, that left this place behind at least…  
The gap was too far to cross by a simple jump. He looked around and managed to grab some wooden planks to shove across the gap.

Soon he noticed traces of battles that took place here and there. There were 'fresh' corpses lying around, soaked in water and dented. Some wore costumes but most certainly looked like zombies. Actually that didn't surprise Axel that much. He had been to Halloween town after all. It had been one of his favourite worlds to travel to.  
But back to the fresh battle marks. Someone must be still close by. But who? Would it be a friend or a foe?

The question soon got answered as he heard notes being played on a Sitar. But they sounded sad and somewhat distorted.

"D…Demyx?"  
The blonde male looked up and dropped his precious Sitar, the instrument looked rather broken anyway. "Axel? Axel! Is that you? Am I dreaming?"  
The Sitarist stumbled towards the redhead and gave him an unexpected hug. The water bearer sobbed and told the redhead under stuttering how he had been attacked here and how he didn't even dare to take a nap or something.

"Well…I had never expected us to …meet again. You haven't seen any other… nobodies?", Axel frowned, looking around. The Sitar dissolved.  
"No…No, I haven't. …You're the first person I see…", there seemed to be something Demyx was hiding.  
"I'm planning on getting out of here. I'm surprised you have not yet found the way out. After all, you're surrounded by your own element…you're in favour in this place…pretty much like Atlantica, got it memorized?"  
Actually, Axel was rather happy that he had met Demyx and no one else. After having betrayed the organisation, he had nowhere really to go… that was why his sacrifice for Sora's sake had been rather easy. Then, also thinking that there was no cure for his nobody-ness…

"Well… but I am not much of a fighter. …Can we go out of here…together?", was that a blush on Demyx face? Was he trying to show emotions again? Well, this seemed to be kind of fluid with the Sitarist.  
"Uhm…Yes. Let's go together. You help with your water…and I… with my unique sense for navigation. After all I found you!", Axel smirked. It felt different than back then before he had 'died'. If Sora had already freed Kairi? Had he already killed Xemnas?

On their way through the corridors and hallways of the undersea city, the two nobodies talked, exchanged their information. As it turned out, Demyx was glad that he didn't have to go on missions for the organisation anymore.  
"Once we are out of here, I can play my Sitar whenever I like!", the blonde exclaimed cheerful.  
"Hmm…it's nice to have some goal…"  
"Who was left from the organisation by the way?"  
"Oh, uhm…there was…Xemnas of course. Then Xigbar… Luxord and Saïx.", Axel furrowed his brows. Saïx was a bitter memory. They had been childhood friends. There was nothing left from that. "Do you think all of us will be reborn like that? We certainly died… in some way."

"It seems like we are somebodies again.", Demyx smiled and looked at Axel. As he noticed that the redhead had locked himself behind thoughts, he fell silent and huffed.

Soon, the two of them were attacked by a horde of what seemed like zombie Dalmatians. 101 of them! But other than the original ones, these were all adult dogs, no puppies.  
At first, Demyx left it to Axel to fight them, then he lent him a hand by using some kind of water charm on the chakrams…eventually he fought too, with his renewed Sitar. Summoning the instrument anew made it recover from the previous damage.

"Phew… that was… "  
"They were so many…", Demyx huffed and leaned on his instrument after the last dog had been fought off. "It seems like all of the creatures from the king's realm have turned into zombies… and against us."  
"This is an abandoned amusement park, if you ask me. I have looked out of the glass tubes and there were rides. These were only costumes… well, for the dogs they have taken the real things. I wonder who built all of this…"  
"Certainly, there are people outside. This is why you wanted to go up, right? But this thing is a maze."  
Demyx was sometimes surprisingly smart, Axel had to admit.

"I have walked these halls for days now… I never found the exit though. There are doors blocked by thick ice. And water isn't quite… as effective to melt."  
"Really? Actually, you should have tried it.", Axel frowned. "Can you show me the blocked doors?"  
"Yes. Uhm… but this seems to be no ordinary ice."  
The redhead frowned and feared that it was ice created by a certain nobody he had killed some time ago. A person he wouldn't want to meet again.

A large block of ice was frozen around a set of two doors leading higher up. "Here it is…"  
Axel looked at the doors, then back at his hands. He had not yet tried to use his 'magic', his fire. Would it even work? From where he stood he could feel the chill the ice sent out. Think of something warm, he told himself. Yeah, he wanted to escape this prison of water and ice. He had seen too much from it. He longed to see the sun again!

A hissing noise and a bit of smoke was all that he could emit.  
"W-whot?", Axel paled and repeated the movements, trying to send his best flames forward to melt the ice that blocked their path. It also seemed like some heavy insult on him.  
"Did you… did you lost your fire?", Demyx asked, almost pitying his friend.  
"Ah, uhm… maybe…I'm not reloaded yet… I … fought Sora lastly and then I put everything into one last attack… well… doesn't work yet.", he was lying. He blinked way too much. He couldn't tell Demyx yet how he had betrayed the organisation, the bloke didn't know anything. Also not what happened in Castle Oblivion. Not any of that. Axel wouldn't know how Demyx would react…yet he was smart enough to not try and ignite some conflict between them. Like said before, Demyx was superior here with his element.  
Overall, this seemed like Axels personal hell. What had he done to deserve this? The thing with Marluxia and Vexen? How he had played with Namine? How he had failed to bring Roxas back to the organisation? He had been something like Roxas 'Senpai'. Maybe he had failed in that role too. Or was it something he had forgotten? Perhaps Castle Oblivion had some effect on him too.

"Try your water against the ice.", Axel finally decided, still somewhat upset on the inside.  
Demyx obeyed instead of asking what was going on. He was too used to be told what to do than disobeying Axel. Especially after he considered Axel his closer friend. Alas, with the water the ice just became thicker and thicker.  
"S-see? I told you…."  
"…Mh.", Axel nodded. "I'm sorry…"  
"You don't have to be. No harm caused.", Demyx felt like Axel was a ticking time bomb. He might explode into the wrong direction.

"…What do we do now?", the redhead whispered, more to himself than to the blond.  
"We just wait until you are recharged. …I would give you some food, but we don't have anything."  
"Mh, unfortunately… when we don't get out of here, we'll starve eventually.", hunger was already nagging inside his belly. That happened quickly thanks to his high metabolism. He usually was warm himself, there was something like an inner fire. That fire lived on food and needed to be nurtured. Demyx had it so much easier…

"Well…would you tell me… do you remember anything from your past life as a somebody? I never asked you.", Axel sat down somewhere, maybe Demyx was right and he really still needed to recharge. They both needed rest.  
"Well…I was living in Radiant Garden. I was just going to school…nothing important, really."  
"In Radiant Garden?", Axel frowned and wondered if he had not seen Demyx before. But the memories were swampy  
"Hm.", Demyx just made.

"Is there really nothing I can do to ignite your fire? We cannot stay here forever."  
The blond was right. Everything was just getting more watery and icy. Cold and wet. Even the water-bearer didn't like it. The redhead scratched his head.  
"Maybe I need fuel? Emotion…could do it too…", his voice became a faint whisper. Emotion? He was a nobody, he slapped himself mentally. But he surely remembered when he was with Roxas, tried to get him back to the organisation… just how mad he had been. His fire had been stronger – that was at least what he felt. …'felt'. Pah!

'Whatever', Axel thought and got up. Time to man up and do something about this ice! He projected his negative thoughts onto the wall of ice and held his hands in front of him, summoning his chakrams for support. The fire went out pretty strong and caused the ice to go into the gas state immediately.  
"Y-you did it!", Demyx cheered and clapped his hands.  
Behind the ice the doors also split away right from the drastic temperature change. Axel felt a bit nauseous. Yes, he was hungry as hell and using fire made it worse.  
"Let's get out.", he managed to spit out and moved towards the newly opened area.

Something about the new area was different. There was the typical smell you would notice on a doctor's office, the smell of disinfectant, but also blood… vomit and disease.  
"I don't like it here…"  
"…Don't ask me."

There, in the middle of all this mess in a big hall was a humanoid 'thing'. It basically looked like a stitched up doll. Nothing on this 'body' belonged together. You could probably say that it was Frankenstein's monster. Alas, the usual monster displayed looked attractive compared to _this_.  
"Just what kind of trash was going on here?"  
The two nobodies tried to step over piles of limbs scattered around the one body that was assumedly the 'masterpiece' of whoever had made this. There were also wires going down to that body as well as a spotlight. As if everything had been waiting for this final moment.

"Good thing it's dead.", Axel said, being a little too convincing over this.  
"Hmmhm.", Demyx just nodded, wondering slightly how a thing like this could ever be living. "Listen Axel… let's just hurry out of here, okay?"  
"Okay, okay. I'm working on it…", he tripped over something and landed on his knees, cursing under his breath. There he was glad to be wearing gloves for once. The liquid he was feeling seemed to be still warm. Also he could feel the texture of the flesh, all gooey, yet firm.  
"Are you okay, Axel?"  
"Of course I am!", he said a bit harsher then he should have.

Because this startled Demyx and the Sitarist quickly made his way to the other end of the room where a set of doors led to a staircase – hopefully up and out.  
"W-wait! Demyx! Look, I'm sorry! … DEMYX!"

The Sitarist never returned. He either had not heard him or had not wanted to hear the Pyro. The Pyro however tried his best to get back onto his feet and follow Demyx out of here. His coat was hindering him in proceeding, making it an actually heavy task. Midway he decided to say bye to his trademark coat of the organisation just for the sake to leave this creepy place.  
Eventually, he threw his coat onto a wrong place because not much later, the stitched up doll in the middle awoke to life…

"GYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAARRRR!"  
An unearthly cry let the window panes shake that kept the ocean from crashing down into the underwater city  
Axel's knees shook a little from fear, shock, a bit of surprise and the sudden rumble that went through the whole complex. He summoned his chakrams immediately and held them defensively before him.  
The creature didn't even look around that much, it just flung itself at the redhead's coat. It sniffed on there and then looked around to see from where this new item had been coming from. Axel then noticed that the creature did have eyes… but probably didn't work properly for they were 'foreign' – not belonging to this body original. Actually, Axel wasn't even sure if it was female or male.  
He dodged the first attack coming from the beast that sensed its environment by its nose.  
Soon he figured out that the best way to beat it was probably doing something to its nose!

To get the nose itself seemed to be in vain, because the thing was so quick. Then Axel decided to put the bodies around him on fire… which was difficult, because they were moist from water and blood. Soon, the redhead's blood mixed with theirs.

When the beast smelled the fire mixed with blood and grilled human flesh, it went wild. It jumped up and down, giving the room another small quake… as if that would change anything, Axel thought while trying not to fall. Yet, he heard awful cracking of glass. That meant… that water would soon fall upon them. And this water would be very heavy, not yet calculating the swirls and physical aftereffects it might have.  
For once, running away was also one of Axels tactics. He simply banished his chakrams and ran away, right for the doors through which Demyx had disappeared.

"Axel? What happened?"  
"Demyx! There you are!", the redhead wanted to pounce onto the blonde, instead just grabbed him and dragged him along. "The monster from down there awoke and the glass shell is about to collapse! We need to hurry!"  
They could already hear the water rushing from below, shooting into the pipes and rooms of glass and metal as if to nurture a connect long abandoned from water. But that was also when the two of them were sure that this beast had to be smacked by the mass of the liquid too.

There, there was a way out, the bright sunlight shone from above through a door that was hanging only halfway. But there was no possible way to get there and the two nobodies stood there staring.  
"What now?!", the water was roaring ever so loudly.  
"Don't worry Axel. I got you.", Demyx said, being unusual brave at this time. "I am the master of water after all. Just trust me."

Demyx's hand wandered and held Axel's. Then they practically just waited for the water to rush from below. The water came and as it hit their soles, Demyx made it just so they would stand on there, elevating to the door to freedom. 


End file.
